Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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512. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will make an additional Christmas payment to persons in emergency accommodation in view of the increase in numbers in this regard in order to make Christmas a little more bearable in terms of meals and clothing. [52917/17]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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517. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a person in emergency accommodation has an entitlement to supplementary welfare allowance to facilitate a special diet for diagnosed Crohn's disease; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52978/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 512 and 517 together.

I was pleased to announce on Budget Day that an 85% Christmas Bonus was to be paid this year to over 1.2 million long-term social welfare recipients, such as pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, lone parents and long-term jobseekers at a cost of €219 million, in recognition of their long-term financial dependence on their social welfare payments for all or most of their income.

Customers who have been in receipt of basic supplementary welfare allowance (basic SWA) continuously for more than 15 months are eligible for a Christmas Bonus and this issued in the last week of November 2017. Customers that have spent time on another qualifying scheme immediately prior to the award of a basic SWA payment and thereby meet the 15 months eligibility criteria are also eligible for the bonus.

Diet supplement, administered under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, is payable to qualifying persons, in receipt of the supplement prior to February 2014, who have been prescribed a special diet as a result of a specified medical condition. Following the outcome of a review of the costs of healthy eating and specialised diets by the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute commissioned by the Department during 2013, the scheme has been closed to new applicants from 1 February 2014. However, in cases of particular hardship, officials continue to have the legislative power to award a SWA payment in cases of exceptional need.

Any person in emergency accommodation, who considers that they may have an entitlement to the Christmas Bonus, but have not yet received the payment, or to financial support under the SWA scheme, including that available under the Exceptional Needs Payments, should contact the Department for assistance.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputies.